Future of transit in Nampa to be heard at City Council meeting
- Bob Pishue
- 3 days ago
- 2 min read
Valley Regional Transit (VRT) and Uber are gearing up to provide a proposal to the Nampa City Council on May 21 regarding the future of transit in the city. In VRT’s presentation, they acknowledge how the high cost of VRT vehicles and operations means less service to Nampa residents, a.k.a. lower ridership, saying the result of which is, “too few vehicles in service & cost/rider too high.”
Their proposal is presented as a win/win, providing more transit for less money through microtransit. While such arrangements are typically beneficial for cities, it begs the question as to why it took officials this long to explore alternative services.
Ridership on transit in the Treasure Valley has continually dropped over the last decade. For example, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that in 2015, about 2,194 people in the Boise Metro Area commuted to work via transit. Yet in 2024, just 465 were using transit to get to work, a 79% drop.
Data from “Means of Transportation to Work, 2024, 1-Year Estimates,” US Census Bureau Table B08301
At the same time, costs have continued to rise at the agency. According to the National Transit Database at the Federal Transit Administration, operating expenses for buses have continued to surge despite overall fewer riders, not just commuters.
In 2015, for example, VRT spent $8,281,091 to carry 1,376,242 riders on buses. In 2023, the latest data available, VRT spent $14,522,985 to carry 989,216 riders on buses. This means that VRT spent 75% more in 2023 to move 28% fewer people than the agency did in 2015, leaving taxpayers to pay more but receive less.
As a result, the cost to move one passenger on VRT buses jumped from $6.02 in 2015 to $14.68 in 2023.
Including Uber in a microtransit program definitely makes sense, but the underlying unsustainability of VRT should be the main focus of discussions moving forward. The Treasure Valley deserves a good transit system that can provide more services and more coverage at a lower cost.
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